Heavily Broken
by argentenipinkini
Summary: Casey gets stood up by her dad and for some reason Derek shows up and announces that he is going to take her out. Casey's a bit confused...he's acting like he cares about her feelings... Dasey


Disclaimer: I don't own the show _Life __With__ Derek_, but I wish I did!

A/N: Yeah, yeah, another story by me when I have so many others up. Sorry…Well, this is just something I was thinking of and if people like it I'm sure they'll let me know and then I'll continue. If not, then…well we'll see how it goes. Please tell me what you think about it! I don't know about you but I like a cute Derek…

**-****Heavily Broken-**

Chapter One-

He was late, again. He was late, and it was cold and Casey was sitting on the steps outside the house, bundled up in her winter coat, scarf and mittens. Her nose was red at the tip and her cheeks were flushed. Her hair, which she had spent an hour curling, was slowly starting to lose some of its volume and the bitter chill seemed to be deflating it. If she didn't have so much hope in her heart that he would be there soon then she probably would have started crying an hour before. But she had to think positively. He was almost never directly on time; there was really nothing for her to worry about.

_But he usually calls_, she thought and found herself frowning. She dug her cell phone out of her purse to check it. She had received one text message since the last time she checked, five minutes before. She eagerly flipped it open and read the message. Her frown deepened.

_I __dont__ think __hes__ coming __casey_.

Casey let out a sour laugh. What did he know? She shoved her phone back into her purse.

_He's coming. I know he is. We made plans. It's not like he just forgot_.

Casey's father was in the country that week for a business trip and promised to take her and Lizzie out to dinner one day that week. Unfortunately, the day they planned for was the one day that Lizzie couldn't make it so it was just going to be her and him and Casey had been looking forward to it for weeks. It had been so long since she had last seen her dad. She missed him terribly and to be honest, she loved the idea of it just being the two of them.

Another ten minutes went by. She checked her phone three times after Derek's text message; nothing. No calls, no voicemail, text message. He wasn't trying to contact her at all. It had been exactly an hour and forty five minutes since she had gone outside to wait for him. The sun had gone down long ago so she was just sitting there in the dark. No one had turned on the outside light yet and she hadn't moved from her spot. It was then that the first tear fell. A few minutes later she was still crying and searching for a tissue in her purse when she felt a hand on her left shoulder. It was Derek.

"Casey," he said gently. She turned away from him and continued to search her purse. Derek just sat down next to her, taking her silence as an invitation. It was almost 7:00 on a Friday night and the two of them were just sitting outside together in the dark. "Casey," he said again wanting her to at least look at him.

"What do you want, Derek? Come to laugh at me?" she practically spat out, still not looking at him.

"No, not exactly," he said.

"Well then why are you here?"

"Didn't you get my text message?" he asked her. She gave up looking for a tissue when she noticed he had something in his hand.

"Yes, I did and I think it was very rude of you. What do you have in your hand?" she asked quickly. He handed her the balled up tissues he had brought out for her. She finally looked up at him and stared for a moment before taking them from him and mumbling a quiet, "Thanks."

"You're welcome. I had a feeling you'd need them."

"Derek, are you okay?" she asked him, searching his face even though it was dark. She was looking for any signs that he wasn't his usual self.

He laughed at her before responding. She glared at him and he stopped.

"Are you serious? I come out here to find you crying your eyes out because your stupid dad forgot about you _again_ and you're asking me if _I'm_ okay? Really?" She was silent, speechless.

"Don't call him stupid…" she whispered, but that's all she could get out for a while.

"Look, I came out here to see if you were okay, all right?" She still didn't say anything. "Okay…I'm just going to go ahead and guess that you're not. And that's why I also have these." She looked up at him. He was holding up his car keys in front of her.

"What?" she asked him, confused.

"I'm taking you out." He could see her jaw drop and tried his best not laugh at her again.

"You're what?" That's when he jumped up and turning to her, offered her his hand. She took it hesitantly, not entirely sure why. He held on to her wrist, in case she let go and refused to come with him and directed her towards his little green car, the Prince.

"You were supposed to go out to eat, right?" he asked her as he opened the passenger door and helped her in. She nodded to him and sniffled. "That's what I thought. Put your seat belt on."

"I don't need to be told to do that," she replied as she clicked it in and he couldn't help but grin. She was at least starting to snap at him again. It could only be a good sign.

He walked over to his side and got in. When he turned the engine on, the radio blared out a rock song. It was so loud that Casey jumped a bit and Derek shot her an apologetic look as he turned it down.

"You know I like to listen to it loud," he said as he started to pull out of the driveway.

"Derek, where are we going?" She had to know.

_What exactly did I get myself into?_ she thought.

"I told you. I'm taking you out."

"Okay, but where? And why?"

"Does Derek Venturi need a reason to take out a girl?" She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, Derek Venturi does, especially when said girl is actually his stepsister and not some random bimbo from the mall. And also, please don't talk about yourself in the third person, it really creeps me out."

"_Ouch_, Case. Your words hurt me."

"Are you going to answer me?"

"Fine. I'm taking you out to eat."

"I'm not hungry," she immediately said. He chuckled.

"Right, yet you sat outside of our house for almost two hours waiting for your father to take you out to eat."

"Yeah, well I may have been hungry before but now I just feel sick."

"No you don't, you're just hungry."

"How do you know how I feel?"

"I just do. You haven't eaten in hours. You kept holding off for your _special_ date." Just then like on cue, her stomach growled. She stared down at it in horror and hoped that Derek didn't hear it.

"The radio's not on loud enough to cover that cry for help your stomach just issued," he said and he was laughing.

"Oh shut up."

"But it's funny!"

"Why?"

"I don't know, it just is."

"No, I mean, why are you taking me to dinner?" she asked. "You never answered that part of my question." Derek gripped the steering wheel a bit harder than he had before and thought about his answer.

"Because I'm hungry."

"That is _not_ why."

"It could be why."

"Well I want to know the real reason."

"It is the real reason!"

"No it's not. Don't lie to me. You can't. I know you too well and right now I know that you're lying."

"Fine, you caught me. I'm taking you out because my date cancelled on me tonight and I don't want to waste the reservation." She thought about that answer and was about to accept it when she thought of another thing.

"Okay, that sounds almost like you're telling the truth but it doesn't explain why you're taking _me_. Why didn't you just call up some other girl?"

"Casey, why do you have to keep asking me so many damn questions?"

"Because I can't seem to wrap my head around the idea of you acting like an actual human being and being nice to me without any real reason or some sort of personal gain of your own."

"Wow, that just makes me feel _awesome_."

"Oh don't even pretend to be offended. The only time you're nice to me is when you get something out of the deal, too. So tell me, what happens when we go out to dinner? Is my mom paying you?" It hurt her to think that her mother was expecting her dad to forget about her if that was indeed the reason.

"No, Nora isn't paying me anything and neither is my dad. They don't even know that we're together; as far as they know you _are_ out with Mr. MacDonald and you're having an amazingly fun time."

"I give up, then. Why?"

"Ugh! You are so frustrating sometimes."

"Well _you_ frustrate me!"

"Why can't you just let me drive and stop asking me all these questions?"

"I'll stop asking questions when you start giving me honest answers."

"Fine! I'm taking you out to dinner because I knew that your dad was going to forget because he's an ass like that—"

"No he's not!"

"Casey, you had plans with him way in advance. You got all dressed up for him and even made your hair different. And he just left you waiting for him. He's an ass." Once again, Casey was speechless. He noticed her hair?

"Is that all?" she squeaked out.

"No. I'm taking you out because I know how excited you were to hang out with him and I know that I'm not exactly a good replacement for him and ew, I wouldn't want to be, but—" she cut him off again.

"_Derek_." He was surprised because she was touching his arm and when he glanced to the side at her he could see that she had a sappy look on her face. He grimaced. She moved her hand back to her lap.

"What?"

"This is so weird to say, but, thanks," and she sounded sincere.

"Thanks for what?"

"For being…thoughtful."

"I'm not thoughtful!"

"No, you are. And this whole idea of yours, it's not only thoughtful, it's, well, it's really _sweet_."

Derek was so shocked to hear her call him sweet that he swerved on the road for a second.

"I am _so_ not sweet. At least not to you. Take that back."

"I won't. I don't know how you thought you could do this and not make me think that you were being thoughtful and sweet."

"Whatever. I just didn't want to see you having your little pity party outside in the dark anymore. It was sad." He looked over at her again and regretted it. She was making that face at him again, and he didn't like. For the first time that night he was beginning to regret his decision.

_Maybe this wasn't such a good idea_, he thought.

"All right," he said to her. "How about we agree to decide to not talk about this anymore?"

"How about we agree to not talk about this right now and maybe continue later when we get to the restaurant?" She offered him a calm smile. When he didn't answer right away she grinned even more and reached over to turn the music up louder, as loud as it had first been when they got into the car. He could tell that her eyes were still a little red around the corners and she kept sniffling every once in a while but other than that she looked normal. Actually, she looked better than normal. Her hair really did look nice. And she was wearing a medium length skirt and heels even though it was winter and pretty cold outside. He didn't know what she had on under her coat but it was probably nice as well. She really was trying to look good for her father.

_Jerk_, he thought to himself as he continued to drive to their destination. He was taking her to a semi-fancy Italian restaurant that he knew she had wanted to go to with her boyfriend Max, back when she had a boyfriend named Max. He smiled to himself. He hated that guy. _He_ was a jerk.

The thing about Casey's dad was that even though he was a pretty cool guy, he just wasn't reliable when it came to his kids. It didn't take Derek very long for him to realize that he didn't treat Casey and Lizzie the way they deserved to be treated. So, even though he had been impressed with the guy that first time he had met him when Casey tried to make a perfect dinner and ended up almost burning the house down, he sure didn't like him now. He didn't like how he just took his daughters for granted. Especially Casey. She tried so hard to please him and he couldn't even take time out of his precious schedule to get himself to call and tell her that he was ditching her.

Derek looked over at her again and saw that she was quietly singing along to the radio, his radio. Dare he think it? She looked pretty. And he liked that she knew the songs.

_What the _heck_ is going on tonight?_ he thought.

Why was he being nice to her and taking her out to eat and thinking that she looked cute as she sat beside him and sang his songs?

_Whoa, now she looks cute?_ He shook his head as an attempt to clear his thoughts. He was relieved to see that the restaurant was coming up. Soon they would get there, be seated, eat and then the night would be over and they could continue being their normal fighting selves. Until then, he was going to have some explaining to do when they got to dinner as to why he was acting like he cared so much.

Was it maybe just because he actually did?

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A/N: Please review, peeps!


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